Ballet Lessons

 As a young girl in Panama, I remember dreaming about taking ballet lessons. A couple of my life-long friends spent years in a dance academy...but not me.  I was never given the chance to join.  So, no ballet dreams come true for me.  I remember going to their recitals, and enjoying every minute of it.  I have to admit that I enjoyed even when they'd mess up...sorry...but it was funny seeing them miss a beat or two, and even tripping over their feet.  Shame on me...sigh...

At any rate, today's devotional reading talked about how in ballet you need to find your focal point in order to be able to perform the famous pirouette (or mad spinning, like I call it) gracefully, without falling on your face.  Like I said, I never did become a ballerina, but I have had my fair share of "mad spinning" in life, and I have ended up with my face on the ground more than once, because I have not stayed focused on the spot that gives me stability and steadiness: The Glorious Face of Our Lord Jesus.

It is incredible how an instant of taking our eyes off of Jesus can cause the floor to move.  This morning alone, I allowed myself a brief few seconds to worry about something happening in a text-message conversation with Dylan, that might very well turn out to be nothing, but at that very moment, I felt myself immediately spiraling down into a dark funnel of worry.  My pulse rate went up, my palms began to sweat, my mind started racing...until I put the phone down and walked away for a while.  I walked away and decided to leave the conversation hanging while I did my devotional reading...and I felt, I literally had a sense of God pointing out to me, how that was the right thing to do at that time.  Had I stayed in the conversation in the current condition of stress I was, the situation would have escalated from nothing to a huge problem without reason or justification for it...other than the fact that I was allowing worry to cause me to lose self-control.

Jesus called me back to Him.  He called me to spend time with Him instead.  He moved me to put my distraction away and to take my sight of the perceived problem and back onto Him...and I felt at peace right away.  How marvelous!  Imagine, it does work!  The Lord is, indeed near...if we come back to Him in prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, the peace that transcends all understanding does guard our minds and hearts in Christ...(Philippians 4: 6-7) How about that...

I think the situation with Dylan is actually nothing...I'm trustingly staying away, carefully watching without getting involved unless needed...and, yes, I never got to take ballet lessons.  I never got to dance at a recital.  I never got to be in a dance team.  But, I have surely tripped over my own feet, and experienced life's many pirouettes...always to be rescued by my Divine Dance Partner...the Only One who can keep me safe in His strong arms.  

Like Pastor Dan says to us at the end of every service on Sundays, may we "dance with Jesus" in the ballroom of life all of our days.  In Christ's Precious Name.  Amen!